1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus performing a series of processing steps such as thermal processing, chemical processing and the like on a thin-plate substrate (hereinafter simply referred to as xe2x80x9csubstratexe2x80x9d) such as a semiconductor substrate or a glass substrate for a liquid crystal display.
2. Description of the Background Art
A substrate processing apparatus is employed for performing various processing steps on a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer, a glass substrate for a liquid crystal display, a glass substrate for a photomask or a glass substrate for an optical disk. In a process for manufacturing a semiconductor device, for example, a substrate processing apparatus formed by unitizing the respective ones of a series of processing and integrating a plurality of processing units with each other is employed.
The substrate processing apparatus transports the substrate by a transport robot between a heating part performing prescribed heating on the substrate, a cooling part cooling the substrate and a chemical processing part performing chemical processing, and performs the series of substrate processing in prescribed order. Such a substrate processing apparatus is generally set in a clean room managed in temperature, humidity and particles.
FIG. 7 is a conceptual plan view typically showing exemplary arrangement of processing units in a conventional substrate processing apparatus. The substrate processing apparatus shown in FIG. 7 has processing parts 110 and 120 and a transport area 130. A rotary coating unit (spin coater) 111 applying a processing liquid to substrates and a rotary developing unit (spin developer) 112 developing the substrates are arranged on the processing part 110 in parallel with each other.
A plurality of stages of heating units (hot plates) HP and cooling units (cooling plates) CP for heating and cooling the substrates respectively are arranged on the processing part 120. A transport unit 131 for transferring the substrates is provided on the transport area 130. An introduction/discharge apparatus (indexer) 140 storing substrates W while introducing and discharging the substrates W is arranged on single sides of the processing parts 110 and 120 and the transport area 130.
The introduction/discharge apparatus 140 comprises a plurality of cassettes 141 storing the substrates W and a transfer robot 142 introducing and discharging the substrates W. The transfer robot 142 of the introduction/discharge apparatus 140 moves along arrow U, takes out the substrates W from the cassettes 141 for transferring the same to a transport unit 131, and receives the substrates W subjected to the series of processing from the transport unit 131 for returning the same to the cassettes 141. The transport unit 131 transports the substrates W along arrow S in the transport area 130, introduces/discharges the substrates W into/from the aforementioned respective processing units, and transfers/receives the substrates W to/from the transfer robot 142.
The diameters of substrates are recently increasingly enlarged for improving productivity, such that substrates having diameters exceeding 300 mm are also in the processing of handling. If the substrates are increased in size, the processing parts for processing the same are also increased in size, resulting in a size increase of the overall substrate processing apparatus as well as the set area (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cfootprintxe2x80x9d) occupied by the substrate processing apparatus in plane. In consideration of management of the clean room, however, such size increase of the substrate processing apparatus is disadvantageous.
This is because the environmental maintenance cost is increased when the footprint of the substrate processing apparatus is increased. Specific equipment such as a hygrothermal control unit or a filter is required in order to retain a clean internal atmosphere of the substrate processing apparatus for maintaining the clean room. Thus, the material cost and the maintenance cost for the filter or the like are disadvantageously increased. In particular, a high-priced chemical filter for coping with chemically amplified resist or the like may recently be required, and hence the material cost and the maintenance cost are remarkably increased if the area for using the chemical filter is increased.
Further, a single substrate processing apparatus recently carries a number of processing units for efficiently processing a large number of substrates. Therefore, a substrate processing apparatus allowing effective use of a space in the clean room is awaited. In order to suppress increase of the footprint of the substrate processing apparatus, therefore, a substrate processing apparatus formed by stacking the aforementioned processing units upward in a multistage manner is proposed and now in the process of usage.
However, it follows that an interface mechanism part transferring/receiving substrates to/from a stepper assembled with the aforementioned substrate processing apparatus is separately arranged on this apparatus. This interface mechanism part also has the problem that respective parts thereof are increased in size to increase the overall size of the interface mechanism part when the size of the substrates is increased, disadvantageously leading to increase the footprint thereof similarly to the substrate processing apparatus.
The present invention is directed to a substrate processing apparatus performing processing consisting of a plurality of stages on a substrate.
A substrate processing apparatus according to the present invention, performing processing consisting of a plurality of steps on a substrate, comprises a transport path extending substantially along the vertical direction, a plurality of processing parts arranged around the transport path so that some of the plurality of processing parts comprise a plurality of processing units stacked substantially in the vertical direction for performing prescribed processing on the substrate, a main transport robot arranged on the transport path for introducing/discharging the substrate into/from the plurality of processing parts while moving along the transport path, and an interface provided for the plurality of processing parts for transferring/receiving the substrate to/from an external device.
The interface is arranged for the processing parts, whereby the area for setting the substrate processing apparatus can be reduced.
According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a specific processing part included in the plurality of processing parts and the interface are stacked substantially along the vertical direction.
The processing part and the interface are stacked along the vertical direction, whereby the area for setting the substrate processing apparatus can be reliably reduced.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a substrate processing apparatus capable of reducing the area for setting the same.
The foregoing and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.